Meet Sean Allt, our Innovative Fitness coach of the month! Sean can be found at IF TELUS Garden.
How long have you been coaching at Innovative Fitness?
2 years and 4 months
Tell us a bit about yourself!
Growing up in a family full of professional musicians, there was never a big emphasis on physical activity. In fact, I was one of the slowest and least athletic kids on the playground through most of childhood.
It wasn’t until high school, when I put myself in as many sports as my schedule could manage, that I started to develop some half-decent physical capabilities. Once I got a taste for the impact structured training could have on not only my physical, but also my psychological well-being, I was absolutely hooked.
From there I decided to pursue a degree in Kinesiology and started working as a trainer during my 4th year of university in 2007. I’ve never looked back, or even so much as considered a different career path.
What is your next big personal CHALLENGE?
Completing the BMO half-marathon, 3 weeks before my wedding. I’ll need to make sure I organize my training plan in such a way that I can balance the runs, workouts, and wedding-related tasks all at the same time.
What personal ADVERSITY have you had to overcome to be successful?
Moving to a new city (Vancouver, in 2014) and basically having to completely re-build my professional network from the ground-up. Luckily, I was able to join the team at Innovative Fitness fairly soon after my move. Being associated with such a trusted brand made it easy for me to make new connections and begin building trust and rapport with other professionals in the health & wellness industry.
Additionally, like so many other people in the world, I’ve had my own struggles with mental health over the years. Working with Innovative Fitness has been instrumental in helping me manage this: not only through having my own regular workouts, but also through regularly engaging in our many Destination trips – getting out into the real world and being physically active in nature!
What has been your biggest personal VICTORY at Innovative Fitness?
Completing my first multi-sport event – the Innovative Fitness Adventure Challenge in support of kids’ health.
Who is your inspiration within the fitness industry?
For a combination of sense of humour, level-headedness, writing style, and coaching skills – Tony Gentilcore.
For technical knowledge and the ability to effectively share that knowledge with other coaches – Kevin Darby. He is one of my personal mentors – I had the immense privilege of teaching alongside Kevin while I was still living in Toronto.
For mindset coaching and helping move the industry towards the mission of sustainable and enjoyable lifestyle management (rather than the idolization of fitness models who only look great for 8 hours out of the year and are photo-shopped beyond belief – thus creating completely unrealistic expectations of what it means to be “fit”) – all of the amazing coaches at Girls Gone Strong.
What is your must-read book for other personal trainers and coaches?
Change Anything. I find that most Personal Trainers will naturally gravitate towards books on exercise technique but the most commonly overlooked element of being and effective personal trainer is having a solid grasp on the theories of Change Psychology.
If you could only pick one workout song, what would it be?
This would really depend on what type of workout I’m doing that day (strength, conditioning, movement/recovery, etc.) but I guess the one song I could listen to no matter what type of workout I’m doing would be “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
What advice would you give to anyone thinking of starting a career as a personal trainer?
You get out what you put in. If you’re not constantly working to educate yourself and be a better coach for the people you work with, you’re falling behind and doing yourself, and your members, a huge disservice.
